DAC approves procurement of new radio technology for Indian Navy

The Union Defence Ministry has approved procurement of 260 Software Defined Radios (SDR), a naval communication sets for Indian Navy at cost of Rs. 490 crore to ramp up surveillance on the high seas.

The decision was taken at meeting of Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) chaired by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The DAC is defence ministry’s highest decision making body on procurement.

Key Facts

These 260 SDRs will be procured under category of buy (India Designed Developed & Manufactured). It will be first batch of indigenously designed and developed software defined radio sets to be procured by any of three services. These will replace existing systems on-board warships.

The development of SDRs was carried out by Defence Electronics & Applications Laboratory (DEAL) of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) will be production Agency. The SDR technology will improve information sharing and situational awareness through secure voice communications and data transfer capabilities.

Software-defined radio (SDR) Technology

SDR is radio communication system where components that have been traditionally implemented in hardware are instead implemented by means of software on personal computer or embedded system.